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The Odyssey remains in IMAX in Madrid: where to see it and how much it costs
More than a month after its premiere, The Odyssey continues to be shown in IMAX at three cinemas in the Community of Madrid. Kinépolis Ciudad de la Imagen, Cinesa Parquesur and Cinesa Heron City Las Rozas are keeping Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster on their schedules, and it has become one of the summer’s major cinema phenomena.
There is, however, one important difference. The film is the first production shot entirely with IMAX film cameras and its reference format is the spectacular 15-perforation IMAX 70 mm, with a much taller image. No Spanish cinema currently has an auditorium capable of projecting it in exactly that way.
The three options in Madrid allow viewers to get close to that experience through IMAX screenings. Kinépolis Ciudad de la Imagen, in Pozuelo de Alarcón, also has IMAX with Laser technology, while the other two alternatives are at Cinesa Parquesur, in Leganés, and Cinesa Heron City, in Las Rozas.The price also makes it possible to compare before choosing. A standard ticket for an IMAX screening of La Odisea currently costs 14.90 euros at the two Cinesa complexes. At Kinépolis Ciudad de la Imagen, the stated price for the film in this format is 14.20 euros, although prices may vary according to discounts and the conditions of each screening.
The appeal of the format is especially important in this case. Nolan and cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema built the whole film around the huge image area of the IMAX negative, meaning that a conventional auditorium shows less information at the top and bottom of the frame. The digital IMAX version available in Madrid does not reproduce the entire original 1.43:1 format, but retains an expanded image and a much greater scale.The film arrived in cinemas on 17 July and runs for 173 minutes. Matt Damon plays Odysseus in the adaptation of Homer’s poem, alongside a cast featuring Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya and Charlize Theron.
The film’s stay in IMAX cinemas more than four weeks after its release gives a second chance to those who avoided the more crowded early screenings. It also makes the choice of cinema part of the plan: the three options are outside central Madrid and require travelling to Pozuelo, Leganés or Las Rozas.
Anyone wishing to see it exactly in the format conceived by Nolan would have to travel outside Spain to one of the few cinemas in the world that retain IMAX 70 mm projection. For staying in Madrid, these three cinemas remain, as of 18 August, the closest alternative to that experience and one of the few occasions in the summer when choosing a screen matters almost as much as choosing a film.